6 Opening Ceremony

"So I see you've made yourself known, student council president." Headmaster Vernon said with an almost invisible smirk playing across his lips.

Looking like nothing more than an amiable old man with an all too playful streak, Keith Vernon had a wrinkled, wizened face that radiated warmth and joviality under a head of long, bushy white hair. He was, in fact, such a stereotypical looking school headmaster that a rumor was spread that he didn't actually wish to be a school master in his youth, but rather no matter what he did or what he tried to become, everyone would only give him an odd look and ask "aren't you a school headmaster?" Crushed by the ubiquitous pressure, which came from everyone around him, from friends to his parents (who had allegedly shouted happily "we have given birth to a great headmaster!" on the day of his birth), Keith was left with no choice other than to bitterly become a headmaster. To console himself, he had decided to become a headmaster of one of the top school's in the world and resolved to never suppress even the slightest bit of his mean streak. This led to the development of a rather confusing persona in which a kind and warm looking old grandpa secretly played dreadful planks on all his students, hence how he garnered the name "Old Smiling Demon" for himself. It was this very name that immediately caused the entire courtyard to become so deathly silent one could hear a pin drop at his arrival, and also this horrid sense of humor that had Art mentally cursing at the old man.

"Damned old fogey. I told him I wanted to remain low-key." Art grumbled.

In reality, headmaster Vernon was not such a mean person as he was made out to be. Although this was a questionable line of thought, one could even go so far as to label him as kind. As headmaster Vernon would later explain this particular incident of clearly smashing Art's plans for the first of many times, he had seen Art beat up a new student with impressive force an thought that Art had changed his mind and no longer wished to remain low-key, and had made the on the spot decision to appoint him as student council president.

Giving Art a meaningful stare, the headmaster ambled over to Kane and handed him a small pill, saying only "Here, this should allow you to recover completely." Kane accepted the pill with a small bow, keeping his head lowered for a moment so the headmaster wouldn't notice the brooding rage and hate filling his darkened eyes. His injuries healing at a visible rate, Kane slowly stood up with a small cough, and gave the headmaster another quick bow of gratitude. Although he was now expressionless, an irrational and unquenchable desire for revenge had risen up along with a seed of hatred in his heart for both Art and Soran.

Art watched the headmaster continue on towards the front of the courtyard, where a podium had been placed for him to make his commencement speech, an indecipherable glint flashing through his frosty eyes.

"Thank you." A deep, husky voice sounded out behind him.

Blinking his long, gently curled eyelashes, Art turned, a warm smile once again placed across his face as he turned to take in the magnificent sight of Soran, who had just thanked him.

"My pleasure." He responded in soft, smooth voice, placing a tempting emphasis on pleasure. "I'm Art, pleased to make your acquaintance." He said, reaching out a slender hand in greeting.

Soran grasped the offered hand, marveling at it's soft tenderness. His mouth felt dry, his pink tongue licking his lips as he tried to return Art's greeting, his green-gold eyes unwaveringly staring into the limpid blue phoenix eyes that amusedly took in his nervous reaction.

Clearing his throat, he simply stated, "Soran."

Loud whispers once again arose throughout the crowd, the students again breaking into a shocked uproar at Art's strength and appearance.

"How did he do that?" one student asked puzzled to another.

But the other student could only shake his head and say; "I don't know. He almost seemed to disappear on the spot and then reappear by Soran. My eyes couldn't follow his movements at all."

"No wonder he was appointed student president for our year. He's strong."

"To even beat Kane in one hit...."

"Look at them, both so outstanding. Who in this generation can match either of those two?"

A shadow flitted through Lydia's green eyes as she took in Soran's emotional gaze towards Art, and the chatter of the onlooking students. As she went to move over towards them, however, a terrifying aura swept through the cloud as a loud clap accompanied by a small shockwave swept through the courtyard. Headmaster Vernon had finally reached the podium, and was ready to start the opening ceremony, his clap immediately quieting the lively crowd.

Art and Soran finally broke their gazes away from each other, and along with the other students straightened their postures and gave the headmaster their respectful attention.

"Good morning, my promising new students. I bid you the warmest welcome to Silver Dragon Academy! You have all proven yourselves worthy of your placement through the entrance exam, and we both honored and pleased to open our gates to all of you, some of the most dazzling existences of a generation!" Vernon's powerful and prideful voice resounded throughout the courtyard, his words filling each of the student's with pride.

"You have all proven yourselves to be exceptional geniuses in an area of magic. However, do not take this to mean your future is set in stone!" His voice now carrying a hint strictness, Vernon continued on.

"Remember this. There is always heaven beyond a heaven, and a genius beyond a genius!" Shamelessly twisting a common saying, his widened gray eyes seemed to stare straight at Art for a moment.

"Your admittance into Silver Dragon Academy is no excuse for laziness! No, you shall have to strive to improve yourselves harder than ever before! You are admitted to this school not because you are a dragon, but because you have demonstrated the potential to ascend into the sky as a pillar of society, in time. Here, we will push you beyond your limits! You will become truly powerful! True cultivators!"

An indescribable pride and determination rose in the tightening chest's of all the students present. Numerous oaths were made at that very moment, with clenched fists, promising to do everything in their power to become stronger. Art and Soran were no exception, the same determination kindled in their hearts as their eyes blazed with pride and confidence.

"At the same time, however, we hope that your time here will be memorable both for the world it opened to you, but also as having been an enjoyable experience in and of itself. So without further ado, please allow me to explain the opportunities and rules here at Silver Dragon Academy. First of all, rules. Fear not, there are not many rules, and they are all simple."

"One: no killing other students."

"Two: violence is only permissible in designated dueling areas." Again his eyes seemed to single out Art, who blushed and turned away.

"Three: no destroying school property."

"Four: obey school rules."

Vernon smiled at the obviously confused and askance reaction of the students to these overly simple and blunt rules. "These are obviously not the full entirety of the school's rules." He smirked.

"There are a number of other minor rules, which you can find in the administration building should you be interested. Additionally, the school administration reserves the right to judge cases as they appear. These rules will be enforced by both the school administration and staff, as well as the student body president of each year. He may create a disciplinary force at his discretion. As mentioned before, Year 1's student council president will be Arthur Vale, a young man who was accepted after the entrance exams through a special admissions test and therefore has no disclosable ranking or score. Hence I shall give him a special rank 0, a position that cannot be fought for on the ranking tablet. Art, please come up and stand next to me."

The ranking tablet was a device located in the central administration building that displays the top 100 student rankings of each year, and automatically updates rankings following official duels. There was one tablet for each year, all being ancient looking slabs of stone, with 100 glowing names carved onto their surface.

A line of black sweat ran down Art's forehead, as he once again began mentally cursing the old man for ruining his plans to remain in the background. Helplessly sighing, he allowed a calm smile to play across his lip, somehow exuding both gentle warmth and quiet confidence at the same time. He gracefully strode forward through the odd mix of jealous, angry, doubtful, and adoring, loving, salivating and awe struck stares of the other students. His slender figure capturing the gazes of the whole crowd, his swaying hair and narrow waist as he walked provoking the sound of more than a few licked lips. Although there were numerous stares that were clearly unhappy with the appointment of someone of unknown ability as student president, no one voiced any outright objections as he clearly possessed some ability to knock back Kane in such a decisive manner, even if Kane wasn't prepared for his attack. Upon reaching the headmaster's side, he gave a small bow to crowd.

"Now, for the courses offered here." Continued Vernon.